In Control
by BenMused
Summary: AU, Preevents of Orpheus. The being inside Cordelia approaches Angelus with an ultimatum, and last chance at survival. One shot. Darkcharacter deaths.


**In Control**

**Disclaimer:** All AtS and BtVS characters are owned and run by Mutant Enemy. I'm just using creative liscense in writing them.

**Summary: **AU. Post most Orpheus events. The being inside Cordelia pays Angelus a little visit, offering him one an ultimatum not to be taken lightly.

**xXx**

Angelus's chest rises and falls, his head bowed as he sleeps soundly against the back of the cage. He doesn't know that I'm here. Doesn't know that I'm watching him more closely then all the rest- always have been. Even if he did know, it's too late now. Locked and chained inside a cage like a bad dog, punished for the mess it's made while the family is away. Always paying. Always paying for the things his counter half had done. No one could see it besides myself. I, who had the luck to see from all sides at once and know that someone was getting what they deserved. With tentative steps, I move closer to the edge of the cage, my hand placed self-consciously against my stomach, protecting a part of me from potential harm. I had to do this, but I couldn't risk myself in the process. No one knew yet, not even Connor, but in time they would. On my time anyway. Angelus stirred in sleep, muttering something about 'tearing' and 'bleeding' and 'death'. The main macho Vampire crap I- she... had heard a million times before.

My hands are against the bars now, tightening around them and enjoying the texture and feel of cool iron bars as my knuckles began to turn white from tension. Lips curving upwards into a smile, I pull the keys I had so easily taken from Wesley's desk out of my pocket, filling the room with the soft tinkling of metal. My eyes shoot across the cage, towards Angelus. Had he heard me? Yet, his body remained immobile, still knocked out from the drugs that Wesley and that Slayer… Faith, had tricked him into taking when he bit the girl. Pesky trick, but only a small obstacle to someone of my powers. His chest still rose and fell, as his body took in air unnecessary for his survival. Still a mystery, even for me. But life and death work in their own ways, and weren't meant to be pieced together, like a part of the grand puzzle they were. I find the correct key almost instantly, having stored the image of it in my mind for just this purpose, this moment.

As quietly as I can, I slide the key into the first lock, opening it with a tiny 'click', and move to the next. No turning back now. With both the locks open, I prepare myself for the confrontation I knew was just around the corner. Fear was the last thing on my mind. I could face a Vampire, even one who had been around for two hundred years. I had been around for longer. The body I resided inside was just an added bonus- a friend of Angel in earlier days. Maybe even something more for a brief period of time. Angelus would want to make me suffer, keep me alive as long as he could. His mistake. All I needed were a few moments, and my main goal would be accomplished. Taking in a deep breath, I pull the door to the cage open and step inside.

Kneeling next to the vampire, I slip the bag off of my should carefully, placing it on the floor next to me with as much care as I could muster with my suddenly all too human physical capabilities. I had to be careful. My life rested on what lay inside that bag, and if I accidentally broke what was inside it too soon, my plan would be ruined. Just for safekeeping, I slide it behind me. With the gentlest of caresses, I touch his brow, and his cheek the way I knew _she_ had longed to do for so long. "Angelus, my sweet boy." I whisper to him as I slowly shake him awake with my other hand on his shoulder. "Time to wake up." Feeding power and strength from myself into him for the briefest of moments, my vision blurs slightly and I almost fall backwards as I rip Angelus out of the mind trip I knew he was on with Faith because of her tricks. I wasn't positive what pulling him out of the trance would do to Faith, but I figured it would be messy and I'd hear all about it later…Suddenly strong arms were encircling my waist. Too much too soon.

"Why, Cordelia. I thought you'd learned from last time…" Angelus snickers, his hot breath brushing into my face, onto my neck. With the slowest, most drawn out movements he moves his hands further around me, locking me against him even closer. Pressed against him now, he laughs softly into my shoulder. Even though I shouldn't be so frightened, the sensation of being so close to danger rushes through me, sending a shiver up my spine and a sudden want to escape, and run back upstairs where I could spend my time honing my powers and growing strength unbeknownst to anyone around me. Dear sweet Cordelia, turned so suddenly and made so foul. But this was the way it had to be. "What are you doing down here? Don't you know I'm dangerous?" He asks, suddenly grasping my neck in his hand, and pulling me into a lip smashing, teeth clacking kiss. His grip around my throat tightens and I struggled to breathe, to push away before he releases me. "Or maybe you just like them bad?" He suggests.

"Stop it." I command, trying to free myself from his grasp by pushing against his chest desperately, knocking him back into the wall in a last attempt that only got him laughing. "Let go of me." I say, raising my voice higher, stronger. Poor Cordelia, trapped in yet another horrible situation, fighting for survival. Except I have a secret this time- this time I was more. More then just Cordelia, more then just a human- I was everything. I had been, and seen everything since before the dawn of time. A little molestation from a creature of the night was the least of my worries.

Another laugh breaks the silence as Angelus moves his hands around both my upper arms, if only to increase his dominance of the situation, and prove that he still has the power. He forces me to look at him, his eyes boring into me, swallowing me up and losing me inside his darkness. They are only cold. Cold and empty. Part of me remembers the earlier days, when his eyes had glowed with admiration, passion and a plan for his future and someday his redemption. Such a fall from grace, it was laughable. Had it been another time, and another place I might have allowed myself a few moments pleasure from the situation, but for now I had business to attend to. "Or you'll what?" He asks, his voice taking on that all too familiar mocking tone. "Plead to death?"

"Not exactly, Angelus." I snarl, unleashing my power again, my hands press to his chest. Muttering a simple binding charm, I solidify the air around him and weaken him slightly in the same moment, enough to topple backwards from him and out of his reach. I put my hand to my neck, soothing the sore muscle and skin there that he had been clutching moments before and catch my breath again. From the other side of the cage Angelus stares, eyes widened at me. The pure shock and disbelief displayed across his face is actually enough to make me laugh, and raise an eyebrow his way in what I knew to be a classic Cordelia expression. "You're not the only one with power." I warn him.

"What the _hell_ was that?" He asks, shaking free of the binding spell after another moment, yet he dares not take another step towards me just now. Not until he is sure whatever had happened was just a fluke, an accident on my part. "Now that was actually smart. Happens so infrequently with you Cordelia; really, I'm surprised. Didn't think you had it in you." He taunts from his corner of the room. Meaningless words I know. My sudden display of power had frightened him, and it was time to tone down the act. Couldn't have him getting too suspicious too soon.

"Just a little bit o' power from my demon half to help me out." I explain, throwing a small Cordelia-like witticism into the pot. And as I thought, he was falling for it hook, line and sinker. Even to Angelus, I was nothing more then Cordelia. Neither he nor Angel had noticed any of the signs, which frequently pointed to just how much I had changed over the past few months. "Oh, and a little spell from Willow," I start to say, to which he perks up again, fueled by the name of the red-haired witch who was such close friends with Buffy. "Who's upstairs, right this moment attempting to put your pesky soul back in that body." I inform him, knowing what it would do to him.

"Well, thanks for telling me." Angelus says quickly, standing to his feet and making to leave. "For that, I'll let you live long enough to watch all your friends die first. Should be funny."

Holding up my hand I keep him in place with a silent command to the forces around me. Air solidifies again and he slams into it in a futile attempt to make his way forward and escape. "Not so fast buddy." I say, shaking my finger tauntingly in his direction. "We're not finished here." Again, he's surprised by my sudden brazen display of power, whereas the real Cordelia would most likely have run, screaming from the room when faced with a vampire of any sort, let alone of his legend. I was able to use her newly gained demonic powers to my advantage- a sudden catalyst of strength for a lowly mortal woman.

With surprise plastered on his face, Angelus leans back against the wall and seems to be forcing himself to keep calm for a few moments at least. "Now? You want to share secrets and swap stories about cute girls and boys in our lives for a few hours?" He asks sarcastically, pushing away from the wall again and pacing the width of the cage in anticipation of the massacre he is so willing to begin as soon as possible. I can feel the tension I've created swarming in the air now, flickering like invisible bolts of lightning around us both, and keeping him in line. "Because, news flash Cordy, if Willow's really here-I don't exactly have the time to sit and chat with you. So you can either-"

"**No.**" I nearly hiss at him, using all my willpower to keep from unleashing my power out of sheer anger towards him. "You don't seem to understand, Angelus." I say, calmer now as I stand to my feet and pull the bag up with me. "You're not in the position to be making any sort of demands." I inform him, placing the bag in front of my stomach, both as protection of my future, and to slide the zipper open. The faint white light of Angel's soul glows from inside the receptacle I had placed inside the bag before slipping out of the bedroom I shared with Connor, and down the back stairwell after the visit I had gotten from Willow. Angelus was _only_ going to get his soul back when _I _said, and no sooner. "Can you feel this yet Angelus?" I ask him, holding the jar in one hand as I threw the bag onto the floor beneath me. "Your soul, so familiar and close, probably just aching to get back inside your body."

Angelus looks at me with widened eyes. He had no known that his soul was missing since I had stolen it. He could sense it then, and I'm sure it could feel it now, so close to him, ready and waiting to taint that perfect darkness with light. Suddenly, his face changed, masking his more pleasant features with a grimace of rage as he tries to swipe the jar from my hand. I pull backwards and stop him once more. "No, no Angelus." I laugh at his feeble attempts. "It's going to take more then that to get this out of my hands. Plus, what do you think will happen if the jar is _accidentally_ broken in a scuffle?" I ask him, dropping my hands a few inches in the air, and catching the jar again. "I'm willing to bet this little soul of yours just zips back into the closest soulless corpse in the room." I warn him, knowing full well that was exactly what would happen.

"You," Angelus says, finally piecing the puzzle together. All the hints, all the plots I'd threaded around each of them, finally falling into one grand design where it all finally made sense. "You're the Beast's Master?" He laughs at the thought. Dear, sweet Cordy, possibly turned so evil? "All this time, Cordelia Chase, the heroine to all of Angel's pathetic fantasies about a life and time where I'm nothing more then a memory, evil? Well when did this happen and who can I thank?" He asks me, obviously enjoying every moment of the girl's downfall.

"All this time Angelus," I tell him. "I'm been sitting upstairs just waiting for you to finally do something right in all this. And where have you gotten yourself so far?" I ask, my turn to get angry. All these plans I had made, where things should have run smoothly, where I should have been sitting in the seat of power, with the Beast at my side. Kingdom of Darkness, destroyed by idiocy from Angelus, who was too centered on his own powers to be able to see when a _real_ power was watching his ever move, and just waiting for him to make the right move. Bringing Angelus back had seemed a good idea at the time- leaving his friends upstairs vulnerable when I finally set him free. And the only person who'd ended up dead thus far was Lilah, and I had finished the job then too. "Locked in a cage twice and trapped in a mind maze with Faith while a Witch struggles to put your soul back."

Angelus's eyes light up again, as something I've said has struck a nerve inside him. "Faith." He said, cocking his head to the side as he tried to remember something that was sitting on the back of his mind. "She was in there with me, I remember that. But when you pulled me out, something happened…. I-"

"She's probably dead." I tell him, the faintest of smiles arching across my lips as I imagine her, eyes cold and distant, gorgeous in their endless, empty, being. It was a sweet thought. "Or at the very least, trapped inside somewhere." I shrugged. I really only had the faintest of ideas as to what could have happened to her because of me pulling Angelus out of his trance. But according to any magical knowledge I had, there were always consequences when a spell was tampered with. I'd protected Angelus from harm, for now, leaving Faith to deal with the repercussions. "But she's not of our concern." I tell him purposely, an opening for my next argument.

"Hey, don't tell me what's my concern or not, lady." Angelus responded immediately, fueling up again. Again I cut him off.

"Angelus!" I say, my voice changes, taking on a much more ominous tone; loud, clear, and ringing through the room. He recognizes it from the times I had spoken to him through spell, inside his head when I'd first let him out. "You will listen to what I have to say." I tell him calmly, but keeping my voice the same. "I am the authority here now. You lost your chance to tell me what's what when you failed to do things my way. When you killed The Beast." It was true, in my eyes; he had lost his way completely. The good that had been him for so long had tainted, corrupted even the most dark of places. "Angel's destroyed you. Turned you from Big Bad you once were and making you go for hurt, instead of kill. I expected you to have cut out all of his friend's throats by now, but even I accomplished what you failed at there." Lilah's face flashes across my mind now, blood staining her hair, and the floor beneath her as it spills from her wound like so much liquid fire.

"So what now?" Angelus asks me, crossing his arms across his chest and trying his hardest to be intimidating without crossing a line. "I'm supposed to bow down and just do your bidding now that The Beast is out of the picture? Because- news flash, I work alone now. I'm not just going to bow down to the first higher power that comes along and be expected to do the dirty work for them. I am not a minion." As he argues his point, his tone grows stronger, angrier at the position he's been placed in. For once he's the one without the power, unlike all the other times he's resurfaced, when everyone just ran screaming after the first deaths.

With my powers, I bend reality and force the air to suspend the jar holding his soul behind me, as I move forward to him. "Oh no Angelus." I say as I press up against him. "That time has passed, and that ship has sailed. I tried to get you on my side, where you would be safe." Touching his cheek now, I force him to look away from the jar, hanging on nothing in mid air behind me, and at my face. "But instead, you get thrown in this cage, time and time again when you should be out there," I say, pointing to the stairwell. "With the rest of them, 'slaughtering the innocent' or whatever it is you creatures of the night like to do these days, in preparation of what's to come." My voice changes here, back to Cordelia again. Sweet, simpering Cordelia- another part of the act. "You're not part of the plan any-"

"Cordelia?" I hear Fred squeak from behind me. Startled, the spell is broken now and the jar drops from the air as I spin to face her. Fred; standing at the edge of the cage with the look of shock and fear plastered on her tiny face. "What are you…" The words are broken as the jar smashes into the floor. I hear a roar of anger from behind me and hands are sliding around my neck, grasping tighter and tighter all the while. My eyes wide, I watch as the soul seeps from the broken glass like fog or mist, and rolls over the floor before slowly coiling upwards. Too slow, not fast enough. My eyes shoot to Fred, whose jaw has dropped open like a scared child, too frightened to move. My hands shoot up, to grasp around Angelus's hands and try to pull them off me. I mouth for Fred to move, do something, and then remember something. Nodding down to the bag on the floor, Fred follows my gaze and notices the stake, half hanging out of a pocket. I didn't want to have to do this… He'd forced me.

Mustering all the strength Cordelia's body would allow, I pulled forward from Angelus, and suddenly his hands are away from my neck, and around my waist again, turning me away from the light emanating from his soul, still spinning in a dance of life, searching for a body to house itself in. I stared into those cold dead eyes, for the briefest of moments before his face changed. The bones in his eyebrows reshape themselves with sickening cracking noises, making him look demonic once more. His teeth sharpened into lethal looking fangs. "If I'm going down, you're going with me." Angelus hisses to me, and suddenly his breath is on my shoulder and neck, as he bites down and his fangs pierce my skin, ripping through muscle without care. How long could this possibly take? I hadn't counted on not being able to protect myself, being useless. I would not lose now.

He went to work, drawing my blood from my body and into his own. I could feel it, running through me now. Before, it had just been there. But now, as it was pulled away from me, I could feel myself slipping away. The part of Cordelia locked away inside of me for so long, was suddenly fighting for release and control over me. Flesh, blood, bone-bits of myself returning to the former host as I am drained. I had no idea what would happen if I died… It wasn't exactly on my agenda. "Angel, stop." I hear myself whisper in a voice so lacking in power it was pathetic. "Please." A sickening crunching noise breaks my pleading as the fangs slip inside again, deeper this time. Time slows for the briefest of seconds, winding down to the gray; color fading away into blacks and whites before my eyes start closing.

And suddenly, everything changes. "I'm sorry." I hear from beside me, and muster enough to look, and see Fred, standing there with a stake in her hand. The soul spins about the air around her, swirling in a mist of white as it finally found its target inside Angelus. Lunging forward, Fred sinks the stake into Angelus's back. I watch as the wood sinks through his shirt, through flesh and bone. The smallest sigh of relief slips through me as Angelus pulls back suddenly, his lips and teeth coated in the sweet ruby red color of my blood; blood that stained both our skin now. I can feel the blood from my wounds, still sliding forth from the slow beating of my heart and over my clothing, breasts and stomach. It's disgusting, yet I can't find the time to allow myself to say anything, instead watching with avid fascination as Angelus's skin begins to crack.

Such a fall from grace, it was pathetic. I had offered him so much, and would have allowed him to stand beside me once my plan reached the perfect fruition. Discoloring in a moment, first gray, and then black his skin flakes away. The stake clatters to the floor as his body explodes into a swirling cloud of dust, skin and bone flaking away into sheer nothingness. Fred is suddenly staring at me from across the cloud of ashes, tears staining her porcelain, perfect features. As the real Cordy is again beaten back, I find myself too weak to move, and stumble, falling forward. Fred catches me in her arms and we sink to the floor, and finally I allow myself a few moments of pleasure. Tears of joy, joy for death, fall down my own face as I suddenly throw my arms around Fred, placing my head on her shoulder. From my spot on the floor, I watch as Angel's soul shimmers for the briefest of moments, a last attempt to grasp for some handhold in the mortal coil. _Die. _I can't help but think, so pesky, even evil he was never any help to anyone. Not part of my plan… Not anymore. The soul finally begins to fade, sinking away and finally disappearing completely as the being that called himself an angel, is finally fallen. _Destroyed._ A small smile graces my features for a moment, before I pull back from Fred, again the picture of sadness.

"What were you doing down here?" She almost screams at me, her voice broken through horrid, raspy sobs. I could tell her the truth that I was here to try once more to get Angelus on my side, where he should have been. That I was here to finally find a way to kill them all and keep them from finding out about my plan. "Answer me!" She does scream this time, pushing away from me and standing to her feet in disgust at what she's gone and done. Covered in my blood, and Angel's. I imagine it's going to be hard to live with what she's done… even if it was to save me.

"I-I took the Muo…" I start, taking my time, and throwing the classic Cordelia confusion into the mix. "The jar-thing that Angelus's soul was in. I wanted to talk to him, get him to tell us what we needed to know, and see if he really did know anything." I lie easily. Lying had simply become second nature to me around these people. So easily trusting, and I was blinding them all with the things I said. "I thought I could handle it. I only wanted to help. I've been so out of the picture for so long lately I just… I just wanted to help…" I say, my eyes wide, throwing the best look of disbelief I could muster over my face. "I'm sorry." I whisper. Not sorry at all.

I slowly and shakily stand to my feet, my limbs weak from lack of blood. My eyes scan the room. Broken glass, blood and dust, all that remained of what had happened. The bag I had brought with me is completely ruined, soaked with blood and covered in shards of glass. I leave it where it is and stumble to the door of the cage, a hand on my stomach. I hear a sigh from behind me, and suddenly Fred is there, her arm slipping around my waist. I fold my other arm across her neck, and together we start across the room, moving silently, not knowing what to say to each other.

Someone is swearing from upstairs. I'm sure they've finally turned the television that _I _had turned off before coming down here back on. They can probably see the stain of blood and glass on the floor of the cage. They notice Angelus is missing now. Maybe they can even see Fred and I as we exit the cage, and start up the stairs. The door at the top flies open and Gunn is there, the flamethrower in his hands. If looks could kill. Shock pours out of every fiber of his being as he sees Fred and myself, my neck and front covered in blood. My stomach. He's looking at my stomach now. Connor appears over his shoulder. "Cordy!" He calls out, pushing his way down to me and to my free side to help me up the stairs. "How did this happen? What'd that bastard do to you?" He's asking me. "The baby?" He whispers.

The words are lost on me for now, as Wesley, and then Willow appears at the doorway. The disgust and horror on Willow's face as she sees me, and notices the blood would have been funny at some earlier time. Some time before it had happened to me, and when I didn't know what it had felt like. I'd have to be much more careful. I was wrong in thinking that I was strong enough because of the baby I understood that now. Anything I did from this point on would have to be better calculated and planned a step further. For the future. "Oh my…" Willow gasped.

"We're okay." I bring myself to say as we reach the landing and move out into the lobby together as one group. "I was stupid. If it wasn't for Fred…"

"Did Angelus escape?" Wesley asks, too naïve to realize what's happened in the cage. Or perhaps it was out of hope that he was choosing to ignore the facts, and what they were pointing to. I'm sure he saw the dust. "We can follow him. Gunn." He says, nodding back to the stairs. For a moment, Gunn seems confused, more in tune with what had happened, and maybe able to admit what he'd seen in front of his eyes. But he seems to understand that Wesley needed this, for at least a few moments. There had been so much death in their lives in the past few weeks, more so in his then any others. The part of me that remained Cordelia, wanted to feel something for him. But instead I allow them both to leave, loaded up with weapons back down the stairs again and out the exit into the sewers.

Connor decides to speak up from beside me. "I should go with them." He says full of confidence as I sit down on an empty sofa cushion. Inside, I let out a breath of relief. If anyone had annoyed me more in the time since I'd taken control; it was Connor. Always so concerned with my well being, it was nearly impossible to get away from him for more then two seconds. Yet his childlike behavior constantly pushed me into danger. Sure, he would never have done half the things he had done had he known my real plans, but his presence all the same was more of a burden then a joy. "Just in case they run into any trouble."

I never doubted that he knew what had really happened, but still I nod and wave him off. "Go. But be careful. Good luck." I say the last part more as an added afterthought, knowing I still had to be careful, and keep up appearances. Sickly sweet was leaving a bad taste in my mouth. With a groan I put my hand to my neck and pull it away bloody, the gaping wound still dribbling blood. "Ouch." I sigh, which gets Willow's attention. Next, she's beside me, dressing and bandaging the wound. So. Years of helping the slayer had taught her something useful besides pesky charms meant to make my entire existence a living hell. I smile at her, insincere.

Fred's still glaring at me from across the room as Lorne comes down the stairs, his head hung in disappointment. "She's gone." He nods to Willow, obviously about Faith, as I'd expected, before he sees me. "How's the soul-spell going down here?" Lorne starts to ask before he suddenly shouts, eyes wide at the sight of pregnant Cordelia, covered in her own blood. "Sweet stars in Heaven, what happened here?"

"Angelus." Fred answers simply; her eyes focus intently on picking at her fingernails, instead of looking at anyone. "He hurt Cordelia, so I hurt him." She adds, shrugging her shoulders and sniffling, before beginning to gag. Covering her mouth with her hand she runs from the room and up the stairs to her bathroom, leaving me sitting between both Lorne and Willow, who are still staring at me, as if answers will suddenly fall out of my mouth and all will be explained as some huge cosmic joke from the Powers That Be. But, truth be told, I hadn't experienced a true vision from the Powers since I'd taken control of Cordelia. Everything was just a ploy in some grand play of my design.

After a few minutes of silence, Lorne stands up and walks down to the stairwell to the basement, looking down at the carnage on the floor before pacing away behind the desk and busying himself with some work left over from people that had called, needing help. Anything to take his mind off of what was happening, I supposed. From beside me, Willow piped up, trying and failing to lighten the mood. "So, when did this happen?" She asks, pointing to my stomach. "Is-Is this new?" She wonders, as if something Angelus had done down there had mysteriously impregnated me. "Because if it is, I'm sure I have a-"

"No." I tell her quickly. "Not new. It's Connor's." I can see the look of simpering disgust flash across her face as I say it. There was something sick and twisted in sleeping with Angel's child. The boy Cordelia had helped care for as a baby, before he was kidnapped by Holtz. To everyone beside myself, including the Cordelia inside me, it was a disgusting relationship. I could feel her struggling to take over when it happened, when I was with him. And with sinister satisfaction then, I had whispered to her inside my mind, that this was the way it had to be. All part of the plan… The perfect plan. "We were going to tell you guys before all this happened. But things just got so crazy." Willow nods her understanding to me. "It's all just gotten so crazy… And I don't see it lightening up anytime soon."

From deep inside myself, I could feel her giving up. Cordelia. Dear, sweet Cordelia who had fought so hard for so long was suddenly reduced to mere wisps of memory at the back of my mind, her sobs for Angel becoming nothing more then a sudden headache at the back of my head, not enough to bother me. I had proven my power to the girl and she had finally given up on ever regaining control. _Don't worry._ I whisper to the girl inside my mind. _This is for everyone's own good._ And it was. What I was doing was for the good of everyone on Earth. They needed to see what was coming. And it would be soon.

With a gasp, I put my hand on my stomach suddenly, a light smile playing across my lips. Willow frowns her confusion to me, and cocks her head to the side. Despite everything that's happened, and knowing I should be sad, my smile grows wider again. "The baby kicked." I say with satisfaction, touching my stomach through blood soaked cloth. _Oh yes. They'd all see… Quite soon. _

**XXx**

_**Author's note: **Well, this is it. Remember it's only a one shot meant to ask "What if". So I won't be continuing it. Please let me know what you think of it though! _


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